Journal of a Vampire
by Omnimental
Summary: This is a character journal from a game of Dark Ages: Vampire, with an added introduction because I can. Enjoy, and R&R.
1. Introduction by the Omnimental

Greetings.  For those of you who don't know me (and judging from my reviews, that would be a _lot_ of you), I am Frostfire Rockwind, the Omnimental.  From my vantage point at the Nexus of Imagination, I am able to play the part of spectator to many interesting and intriguing storylines.  All of them, in fact.  Sometimes, I even bring back a souvenir.  This is one such case.  The following writing is the translated contents of a very old journal I've happened across.  As near as I can tell, this old leather-bound book is nearly as old as the _Magna Carta_, and it is written in a Germanic tongue just as old.

Of course, for the sake of continuity and sanity, I've translated it from Early Thirteenth Century German to Early Twenty-First Century English.  Most of it, anyway.  Some things, such as dates and signatures, I felt were better left alone.

Currently, I cannot vouch for the authenticity of this document, but far be it from someone who claims to be the one and only Omnimental to doubt a man claiming to be a childe of Caine…

Enjoy.


	2. March 16, 1220

Montag der 16. März, 1220

          Tonight, I was reminded once again of my lost humanity.  Nora has been something of a special project for me ever since we first met.  She is nearly human, this one.  In the time we've been partnered, I have never seen any sign of her Beast.  To this night, I have no idea how she feeds.  I admire her conscience and sense of humanity.  It is unfortunate that I have to push her, always, toward the maw of her Beast.  If I don't she will perish, but when I do, I fear she will be lost in another, worse way.

          This evening, Voradore called upon us to find and eliminate a criminal gang known as the Snakes, who were preying on our limited kine.  Humans, limited humans.

          We had located their headquarters, and I took advantage of the situation to force Nora's aggression.  It took much arguing, and my heart was not in it, but she eventually relented, and went in to kill the leader.

          Once the deed was done, I came in after her, to finish the cover-up, and to be certain she was still herself.

          She had run him through with a sword, and yet seemed more surprised and horrified than the bloody corpse before her.  Worried she might frenzy, I did my best to comfort her and talk her down.  For the first time in years, the Lord smiled upon me, and Nora recovered.

          Tomorrow evening, Voradore wishes us to seek out a man that runs and hunts as a wolf, preying on ki- humans.  I hope Nora is better recovered by then.

Udo der Tote 


	3. March 17, 1220

Dienstag der 17. März, 1220

          Well, this has been an evening to top them all.  I awoke to the sounds of furniture being moved.  Ghouls were emptying Nora's room.  I asked about her whereabouts, and the ghoul was as helpful as ghouls ever are.

          Voradore was somewhat more helpful.  He told me she died.  She left the complex alone while I was writing last evening's entry, and was thrown into her Final Death by one of those mutts.  Tad seems less broken up than I would have thought.

          I can't help but feel responsible.  She wasn't the type to wander outside by herself that close to dawn.  I must have misjudged how badly killing the gang leader affected her.  She is yet another sin to blacken my soul, as horrid as my family and the Lady d'Lars.  It seems that Satan will kill those near to me, whatever I do.

          That would be preferable with my new acquaintances, however.  Voradore wasted no time in pairing me with a new partner: Katherine.

          Katherine is a bitch.

          We found the strange wolf-like man, and brought him back to Voradore in spite of Katherine's brute-like stupidity.  He calls himself Abarath, and is currently a member of our assigned coterie, by Voradore's order.

          The entire time we were out locating and retrieving Abarath, Katherine spent her time glaring at me, sizing me up, I suppose.  Abarath, apparently a kindred spirit of hers, brought matters to light and voice, asking her outright how it was she could follow someone as "weak" and "short" as myself.  While Abarath spoke with Voradore in his office, Katherine and I finally began to show our true feelings for one another, quite verbally.

          Unfortunately, Katherine's idea of "verbally" involves brutally attacking walls with the person she's speaking to as a weapon.

          Voradore, somehow aware of the occurrence (possibly because the wall involved had his office just on the other side) erupted from his conference with a mass of animate darkness, demanding an explanation.  Katherine dropped me to the floor, the frenzy instantly gone from her eyes, and as I burned precious blood to heal myself, Voradore made it explicitly clear to Katherine what type of behavior would and wouldn't be allowed in Sanctuary.

          That might have been the end, at least for the evening, but Abarath then suggested the wonderful idea of going to the training center to spar some.  Once there, he went about picking out rather large opponents one by one and fighting them to the floor.  As far as I know, he didn't lose.  I was content to find myself a bench and read, but Katherine felt it important to "challenge" me for "command" of our coterie, as though we were little more than wolves.

          I attempted to remain as I was and read, but she physically pulled me into the ring, and those vampires in the vicinity circled tightly around and refused to let me leave, offering their bodies as a wall, and the rising jeer of "coward" as bait for my own Beast.

          I told Katherine I was not interested in a fight, and when she specifically said she would challenge me, I told her I cared not for command, and if it was truly that important to her, then it was hers.  That would not suffice, however, and I felt the Beast begin to boil in my blood as the jeering continued.

          Truth be told, I believe luck was on my side.  Truly, that is the only explanation for how long I lasted.  She finished me quickly, frenzying in the process, and in the end I made the acquaintance of her friend the floor at a high velocity.  By the time I awoke in the infirmary, the match was long over, and I could think of a dozen or more things I might have done better, and another dozen I may still do.

          Katherine came with Abarath to gloat over me before the physicians allowed me to leave, but I had not the strength of heart to deal with her just then.  I had been tried heavily in mind, body, and soul, and irony of ironies, only my soul was not found wanting.  The night has been a long one, and I have not yet mourned the truly dead.

Udo der Tote


	4. March 18, 1220

Mittwoch der 18. März, 1220

          Tonight was a night of rest, sorrow, and revenge.  Voradore has given the coterie a new quest, one that will require far better than a single night.  If this is any indication, it may be that Voradore considers the brutes with which I've been paired far more valuable than Nora or myself.  The two of us were never sent on quests of this depth.  I am no more than a single night into the new, and yet already I pine for the old.

          I awoke this evening to a dog staring me in the face.  This is far from ordinary, in my perspective, but I'm certain my new roommate sees nothing unusual in it.  Sanctuary must be short on space, because Voradore instructed that Abarath room with me.  Of course, I must admit that Abarath isn't all that bad, once one gets to know him.  He is a wild spirit, but not so self-centered as many individualists are, and certainly he has been a less physically painful presence than Katherine.  Less mentally painful, too, I suppose.  Katherine is nothing like Nora was, and yet Voradore wishes her to take Nora's place.  In the space of a night, my world has been destroyed and rebuilt, once again utterly alien.  As it was when the Lady took me, and again when I…

          Our new quest requires fair travel, and may well prove dangerous for me, as it requires that I retrace my steps from over the past twenty years.  Were I of any other clan, it might not be so bad, but my clan dislikes the unknown.  I shall cross that channel when I come to it, however.  Our boat departs for northern France in two days time, which allows us a modicum of rest in between.

          Abarath and Katherine have, obviously, spent a great deal of their time sparring and training.  I tended toward my more familiar haunt in the library.  I feel that I have regrouped slightly from my humiliating defeat, and this evening I can boast my own victory, both against Abarath and Katherine, but mostly Katherine.  I made it clear to her that, regardless of how she might bludgeon my form, my mind will never bow to her, and she leads me only when I allow it.  For Abarath, it is more a victory over his perspective than over him.  He seems to hold to Katherine's ideal that the physically strongest is most fit to lead, but I think he held with me tonight, when I refused to merely sit in the empty gathering hall and wait, when our time could be put to a myriad better uses.  Nora had always understood the value of our free time at dusk.

          Unfortunately, I must admit to Katherine a small mental victory over myself, as well.  She has truly angered me.  I have carried myself above such things for nearly a decade, but she has reawakened the Beast within me, spurred it to a greater activity, and for this I will never forgive her.  I have begun studies to further my knowledge, and once I have achieved the skills I require, my revenge will be most sweet indeed.

Udo der Tote


	5. March 19, 1220

Donnerstag der 19. März, 1220

          Further studies tonight.  Voradore has excused us from further meetings in Sanctuary's main hall until we have accomplished our task.  Katherine continues to frequent the training facilities, flexing the muscles of her body as the muscle of her head continues to atrophy from disuse.  Abarath likewise enjoys his sparring opportunities, but with him, it is different.  His technique is unlike anything I've ever seen, and his demeanor, while gruff, gives the sense of a kind of common wisdom, earned from his travels of the world, no doubt.  I should like to visit the places he's seen.

          The library will never cease to amaze me.  As long as I've been here, and as often as I read its books, it always seems to have sections I've never seen, and books I've never noticed on subjects I've never fathomed.  I am becoming greatly educated on the traps found in dungeons, tombs, and treasure vaults.  Some are so expansive and intricate as to boggle the mind, while others offer beauty in their simplicity.  The latter ones are of more interest to me, as they could easily be rigged in a small dormitory room, much like the ones here in Sanctuary.

          My soul is a constant source of shock to me as well.  As much and as often as I try to preserve any part of my humanity, the Beast clouds everything.  Nora was taken from this Earth not two nights ago, and already she fades from my mind.  I might not even be moved to write of this occurrence, were it not for the sudden shift in my nightmares.  Now, in amongst the tortured images of my mother and father, my brother and baby sister, the Lady d'Lars and the myriad victims of my first decade, those souls on whom I feasted without remorse, and can now only see clearly in my dreams, I see Nora as well.  In my dreams, I see her leave Sanctuary, and watch helplessly as the mutt destroys her.  I can smell her fear, and feel how she not only cannot protect herself, but has no desire to.  She has entered my daily penance, and joined the dance of my victims, to remind me of my sins for the rest of my immortal life.  I almost fear to close my eyes in slumber this dawn.

Udo der Tote


	6. March 20, 1220

Freitag der 20. März, 1220

          Tonight was the first night of our travels.  I packed what I felt necessary, and little more.  My Bible, my journal, a pen and ink, and my father's hammer.  Voradore granted me the use of a tent made of thick material, which I may have to use, should I be unable to find shelter outdoors.

          Our voyage began as a boat trip across the Channel to France.  Back in close quarters again, it took little time for Katherine and I to begin threatening one another's liv- existences.  We were prevented from following through on any such threats, partially by the presence of Abarath, and partially by the end of our aquatic leg of the journey.

          Abarath seems less than impressed with Katherine's leadership skills.  I have no doubt he would have challenged her for the position by now had Voradore not forbidden it to him.  However Abarath may feel about it, Voradore is a mighty force, and the same force that stills my tongue time and again has proven sufficient to still the wild soul of Abarath as well.

          Our journey was mostly uneventful, save for the bandits who wished to rob us.  Katherine responded to them with a callus disregard for the sanctity of life, a fool's ignorance of the value of stealth and secrecy, and a truly mighty example of her ideal of brawn before brain.  I preferred to simply dominate one of them, and force him to find shelter for us, to save us the trouble of hunting for our own come the first fingers of dawn.  While that didn't work as well as I would have liked, it provided us with a shack that was capable of sheltering us from the sun's rays.  Katherine and Abarath both preferred to go on, however.  As I write this, Katherine and I are attempting to make ourselves comfortable in a dank cave we acquired when Katherine slew the crazed old hermit who lived here.  Abarath displayed his convenient ability to simply sink into the earth as though it were water, and avoid the sun that way.

          My nightmares have been growing more coherent, or perhaps less, depending on one's perspective.  Nora is becoming more their focus, and I see the events of her final death more clearly than before, as if I were there.  Am I losing my mind?  I fear I may come out of this more mad than a Malkavian, presuming I come out of it at all.

Udo der Tote 


	7. March 22, 1220

Sonntag der 22. März, 1220

          It would seem I've missed an entry.  Such things can slip one's mind after a pair of nights such as I've had.

          Yesterday evening, our coterie made to pass through a wooded area, only to be barred passage down the only trail by a rude and confident man.  Kat attempted to persuade him otherwise, using actual words and sentences, much to my surprise.  Rather, she began that way.  I stepped in for her when she appeared ready to begin "convincing" the man with her sword.

          Unfortunately, the man proved unreceptive, and in fact seemed to know what we were.  Abarath placed his hand on my shoulder and told me what I already knew: Talking wouldn't work here anymore, and we would have to earn our passage with this man's corpse.  I handed the mantle back to Katherine, who was more than happy to oblige the man.

          Unfortunately for her, this proved easier said than done.  Both Abarath and I were content to stand down and let her have the position she'd so desired, leaving her to fight the guardsman alone.  Abarath stood solidly, though, and I hid a handful of _Creo Ignem_ blood magic within my cloak, just in case.  It turned out that this man was more than Katherine's match, just as he was more than just a man.  He threw off his cloak and grew to a truly monstrous height, showing himself to be one of the mutts.  I felt my blood burn as I remembered my increasingly vivid dreams of Nora's death, and I am almost certain that my fire magic flared in my hand.  The mutt gave Kat a decent beating, similar to the one she had given me, and took my fire and Abarath's axe as well, before it finally fell.

          As we ventured into the forest, the night grew steadily darker, such that it became very difficult to see, even when I empowered my senses.  When there was little more than an hour before sun-up, the forest was still as black as pitch.  The cause soon made itself known, killing one of Katherine's wolves as it came.  It was like a wolf itself, but made of darkness, and its eyes glowed a devilish green.  The shade toyed with us, and that proved its undoing, as the three of us pooled our strengths and dispatched to back to Hell.  We are lucky it wasn't with a pack, or we might well have been veal as opposed to victors.  Abarath found a cave for Katherine and myself to spend the day, and he and his ghoulish wolf stayed watch at the entrance, although he did so from below the earth again.

          Our next evening's travel brought me back to more familiar territory, reaching back through the years of my splintered memory: Cologne.  We were well into the Holy Roman Empire, now.  I noted that Cologne's new cathedral seemed to be nearing its completion.  Perhaps it will be fully built in another decade or two.  That cathedral gives me a lasting landmark to count the years with, as its construction began shortly after my birth.  Perhaps, one day, God will be merciful, and let me enter it and pray.

          Cologne presented Abarath and myself with the opportunity to feed, which we hadn't done for a while.  Granted, Katherine had her own kine in tow, but she refused to allow anyone else to feed from them.  They follow her willingly, without being dominated or otherwise coerced.  They are not ghouls, but mere mortals.  I refuse to see such willing prey as human; these are merely kine.

          Abarath found his prey quickly enough, and proceeded to make a scene as he chased her.  I tried to convince him to stop and adopt a lower profile but, like Katherine, he seems to only understand the stealth of the predator, and not the stealth of the prey.  I don't understand how people that pay such attention to the food chain can only understand half of the system.

          My own hunt was, unfortunately, less fruitful.  I followed a cry for help only to have the privilege of helping a woman extract her foot from the cobblestone walk.  Shortly thereafter, a small child came up to me and tugged at my shirt.  Foolishly, I assumed he was lost, and didn't consider how strange it was to see a small child out in the city streets at this hour.  I walked with him to an alley, only to watch him become a rat before my eyes.  I began to back out of the alley, realizing I'd walked into a trap, but my escape was cut off by the rodent equivalent of a mutt.  It snarled at me, and left me no option but to fight it.  I fought as best I was able, hoping perhaps to get my meal from it instead of from the kin humans it was preventing me from hunting.  I had no idea how fast it was, though.  I never landed a punch nor bite, and might well have met Final Death if it weren't for Abarath's wolf.  The wolf leaped on the rat-mutt and tore into it violently.  At its first opportunity, the wolf howled to Abarath, who arrived shortly thereafter, burying his axe in the rat's flesh, turning assailant into meat.

          Abarath collected a vial of blood from the rat, just as he had the previous night from the mutt.  I wonder what it is about these creatures' blood that makes him collect it that way.  For that matter, I wonder too about that strange laboratory I saw back in Sanctuary, the night I learned of Nora's fate.  Voradore gave me a small container of flesh, ash, and ichor, which he told me were Nora's physical remains.  I took them, figuring to give her a proper burial at least, but I was met by Tad in the library.  Tad wasn't his usual self at the time, but then neither was I.  He told me he had been sent to collect Nora's remains.  He showed me the notice, and it was legitimate, so I gave them to him.  He let me follow him to a laboratory I had never noticed before, where he gave Nora's remains to a researcher.  The researcher then loaded what was left of my partner into something Tad called "the Vault," and we left, not receiving any further explanation.  There is too much happening around me that is unexplained.  I need to learn more of my surroundings and the doings of my fellow vampires if I am to survive for any length of time.

          My nightmares of Nora grow more vivid.  What does this mean?  Why do I constantly dream of a scene I have never witnessed?  It grows into a more precise picture every day, extending its beginning ever closer to when I'd left her.  Am I going mad, or are my senses trying to tell me something important?

Udo der Tote 


	8. March 23, 1220

Montag der 23. März, 1220

          My hunt was more fruitful tonight.  I asked Abarath to accompany me, as I no longer trust the streets of Cologne not to unleash strange animal beasts on me.  As it happened, his presence was not truly necessary.  I found a pair of seedy-looking men in an alley, and made a meal of one of them without further incident.  We then rejoined Katherine and left Cologne behind, making our way to Krakow.

          Nearer then land of my birth, we became aware that we were being followed.  All of us, whether vampire, wolf, or hapless pathetic kine, could sense it.  It was that sudden movement in the corner of your vision that is gone when you look.  Shortly after we became aware of them, they began to howl to one another, and the wolf pack closed in.

          There were five of them surrounding us, melting out of the forest like feral shadows, and snarling at us as though we were demons on Earth.  Perhaps animals truly are more perceptive…

          The wolves wasted no time pressing the attack, and killed one of Katherine's kine with their first assault.  Were they merely wolves, such an act would have sealed their fate, as Katherine seems to frenzy sooner and sooner, and with less provocation each time, and her increasingly animalistic appearance is making her a far more intimidating presence.

          As it was, only two of these wolves were true wolves.  The remaining three revealed their true forms when Abarath buried his axe in one of their canine brethren, and rose up into their raging battle-forms.  The one nearest me charged at me, and I did the only thing that made sense to do.

          I ran.

          With the devilish hunter bounding after me, I tore into the forest's undergrowth, slipping through the smallest spaces and tightest nooks I could find, my size my only useful asset.

          Searching desperately for a place to hide, and ignoring the strange sense of déjà vu I felt, I found a large hollow log, and dove into it, praying the creature wouldn't find me.

          I considered drawing on my thaumaturgical flame, to be ready should the beast find me, but I knew my only hope was to not be found.  My realm has ever been books, not battle.

In the end, it didn't matter what I wanted to do; it was mere moments before I could hear the creature sniffing the log in which I hid.  My dark little hole then exploded in a shower of splintered shards as the mutt rent it asunder with its terrible claws and grabbed me by the shirt, lifting me high into the air, where I could see into its eyes.  I was certain now that I was going to meet Nora in Final Death, and felt a strange calm come over me.  The beast, however, seemed to lose some of its blind rage.  It sniffed at me again as its eyes softened slowly into confusion.  "Udo?" it asked, its voice a rough growl.

The beast set me down as it shrunk into a human form, and I recognized it.  "Alex?" I replied.  Oh, the wondrous cosmic joke my existence seems to be.  Alex, my true friend from the days in which I lived.  Alex, who was a Sarafam knight, who found me the night of the raid, and bought me the precious few moments I needed to fade away into the night.  Alex, who though he doesn't know it, and most likely never will, helped me to finally bury the night terror Neuntöter, who had terrorized our village for more than five years.

Here we were, face to face after so many years, and yet held away from a true reunion of friends by an almost tangible barrier of war, writ in centuries of blood.  We stood there deep in the woods and spoke, the fight gone from either of us.  Truth be told, we should have fought.  We were obligated to willingly expend our own lives to assure that the other didn't walk away.  We didn't.  With what we once held as the truest of friendships reduced to now an uneasy truce, we parted ways.  I had him stab me with his spear, so that he could show my blood as "proof" he had killed me, and he then used a mutt ability I'd always dismissed as a legend and nothing more: He simply vanished into thin air.

Just before he left me, though, he put his hand on my shoulder, and looked at me with a sadness in his eyes that I am no longer accustomed to seeing in anyone.  "You were supposed to be one of us," he told me.  Then he was gone, and I was alone to reconsider what I'd truly lost to the Lady d'Lars.

I pondered his words all the way back to the original scene of the fight.  I was careful to avoid being seen as I approached, but the massacre that greeted my eyes told me that my coterie had won.  Perhaps not truly my "side" anymore, but my coterie still, for good or ill.  We were not without casualties of our own, of course.  Katherine had lost her blood-lackey, narrowing her herd down to but a single kine, and she was forced to transform her remaining wolf into a ghoul to prevent it from dying outright.  I noted that Alex was nowhere to be seen, as a corpse or otherwise, and wondered if he had returned to the battlefield at all.  When we moved on, I lingered behind just a moment, and whispered a quiet prayer for the souls of my fallen brothers.

Udo der Tote


	9. March 31, 1220

Dienstag der 31. März, 1220

Our remaining journey to Krakow was of little consequence.  We ran most of the distance at top speed, taking advantage of our tireless, dead muscles, and snuck ourselves into a caravan en route for the final leg of our journey.  Once in Krakow, I consulted the instructions Voradore had given us, and we found the local safe house shortly thereafter.

The proprietor of this place was a vampire named Arthur, who invited us in and saw us immediately.  We delivered the package Voradore wished us to deliver, and waited as Arthur spoke with Voradore via a device that seemed based as much in magic as in science.  Voradore requested some special package in return, but Arthur sent it with one of the local vampires he had in tow.  We, he told us, were to undergo another, different mission.  For the meager remaining hours of this evening, and the coming day, he would allow us to make ourselves at home, and told us that whatever we felt we needed would be made available to us.  Kat and Abarath decided, as usual, to train their fighting skills.  I made use of my time with a private tutor, however, and learned why the mythical strength, speed, and stamina of the undead seemed to be no more than a myth.  I had always assumed that was merely something that happened to a person in the Embrace.  While my comrades were training themselves physically, though, my tutor began to teach me the ways of a new discipline, which she called the Discipline of Fortitude.  I believe I will find a great deal of use in this ability.

Udo der Tote 


	10. April 1, 1220

Mittwoch der 1. April, 1220

Arthur's generosity carried through to this evening, as we prepared to depart on our new mission.  He agreed to outfit us with whatever we needed, and Abarath and I took advantage of the opportunity.  Katherine, however, preferred to remain as she was, covered in the tatters of a beggar and armed only with her sword.  Abarath had himself outfitted with a fresh set of clothing and new armor as well, and came out looking quite impressive.  I preferred to remain unarmored, as my best tactic has always been to avoid being hit in the first place.  I did, however, get myself a fresh set of clean clothing, as well as a dagger, which I hid in my belt as an added precaution.

Our new objective involved covering another decent distance.  This time, we were to visit a city I'd never heard of before, hidden on the island of Corsica.  Arthur hadn't given us a specific task beyond reaching this city and awaiting further instructions.  All he said was that the people living in this city could tell when others were lying or hiding something, and doing so isn't advised.  Wonderful…

We have set our first goal on this journey as Vienna.  I expect we will be about a week traveling there, most likely a week of days spent sleeping in caves like the one I write in tonight.  Hopefully, it will be an easy journey, and I will have no need to write of anything before we arrive in Vienna.

Udo der Tote


	11. April 4, 1220

Sonnabend der 4. April, 1220 

My past reared its head again this evening, this time in the guise of a Sarafam Knight.  As we traveled along the road, we saw a man wearing armor on horseback.  Before he was close enough for us to recognize anything about him, however, he drew his sword, screamed a battle cry, and spurred his mount to top speed, charging us.

Katherine, as our "alpha," was nearest the charging knight, and as such was also his first target.  She attempted to jump out of the way, but her tattered clothing proved her undoing, getting caught on her kine's cart of belongings and leaving her easy prey to the knight's now-glowing sword.  His downward thrust pierced her body and pinned her to the ground.  Even though the wound closed itself fairly quickly, something about the sword caused a surprising amount of her vitae to spill onto the ground.

The cart blocked Abarath's and my route to the knight, but Abarath had little problem with that.  He leaped over the cart and tackled the knight from his horse.  I followed behind him, not so much leaping as scrambling over the cart, and was ready when the knight stood back up.

Launching myself at him, and burning some of my own blood to increase my chances, I grabbed hold of his helmet and threw my weight into twisting it off, hoping to create a weak point we might aim for.  I hear a clasp or two break, and while I couldn't remove it completely, the knight's helmet now hung by a single strap, leaving his head exposed.  Abarath took the opening and ended the man's life.  Humiliated, Katherine drank the corpse's blood to replenish what she had lost.

Even now, I can't help but smile as I write this.  It is not often that I can perform better than Katherine in battle, and I'm certain I will enjoy reminding her of this occasion for years to come.

Udo der Tote


	12. April 7, 1220

Dienstag der 7. April, 1220 

What a lovely evening tonight has been!  We are in Vienna, and whom should we run into but Sebastian.  That pompous twit of a vampire added extra misery to my life, or lack thereof, for all the years I was in Sanctuary.  Nora's as well.  I remember one time in the library; he and I almost began throwing orbs of fire at one another.  Fire is always entertaining when used against another vampire; the look on their face just before they fall to unholy ash is truly a thing to behold.  Like when Abarath tricked him in the underground.  Those furnaces the vampires of Vienna built do an excellent job of roasting a vampire when the pressure is released.  He flew into the air like a big firefly, or like a bird that's caught fire.  Silly Sebastian, playing with fire.  He never was all that intelligent.  Never as smart as me.  No, he was stupid and played with fire and Sarafam.  Wow, the blood in that vial was really something.  Far more potent than that stuff d'Lars gave me.  I wonder where she got it?  Maybe it came out of a rat.  Abarath takes things out of rat-people; maybe she did too.

Udo der lachende Tote 


	13. April 7, 1220

Dienstag der 7. April, 1220 

My head aches, so I will be brief.  I know not what form of vitae Abarath fed me last night, but its effects on the mind were far stronger than any alcohol I've ever encountered.  I feel I should clarify my last entry.  We have arrived in Vienna, and we did encounter Sebastian.  He was garbed in the armor of a Sarafam Knight, and told us that they are not the single-minded vampire slayers the purport to be.  Rather, they intend to take their "rightful" place as rulers over humanity, as well as the rest of the beings on this Earth.  He claimed they only waged war upon us because we are their only threat.  Our rightful place is to rule over the humans, he claimed, and if we join the Sarafam, we can take control of this world.  I cursed him for a fool, and he ran off, saying that the Sarafam would reduce us all to ash once he told them we were here.

Abarath pointed out that we would not survive an onslaught of these knights, and we decided to chase Sebastian and stop him from reporting to his new superiors.  In the end, it was Abarath who defeated him by releasing the pressure on an underground furnace, scorching him and flinging him through the air.  He still had some fight in him, but Abarath hit him hard, and he stayed down.

I wanted to drink his life, and would have, had Abarath allowed me.  Perhaps Neuntöter is not buried as deeply as I had believed.  Abarath felt that Katherine should diablerize the fool instead, which she failed to do properly, leaving only the withered husk of Sebastian's wasted corpse.  Abarath gave me a vial of blood to compensate, and in my anger I almost dashed it to pieces on the ground.  I suppose, had I done that, I would not have felt the strong artificial bliss I felt before I slept, nor would I have felt the incredible energy churning within me.  I must learn more of this special blood Abarath carries around; it would seem to have its uses…

Udo der Tote


	14. April 8, 1220

Mittwoch der 8. April, 1220

We have left Vienna, and are making our way towards Salzburg.  Katherine had a different destination in mind, one that lay on a more direct course to Corsica, but I insisted we travel this way.  My route will certainly be more dangerous, especially for me. It will take us directly through the village of my youth, and the area terrorized by the Neuntöter.  I know for certain that mutts patrol the region, as well as Sarafam Knights.  However, I have a debt to repay.

Alex has saved my lif- exis- Alex has saved me twice now, and I have done nothing to aid him in return.  I must let him know about the Sarafam and their true agenda.  I know him, and I know he would not be a part of the organization Sebastian described.  I took a medallion with the Sarafam crest from Sebastian's body; I pray it will be enough to convince Alex.  If more of his Lupine brethren are in the Sarafam ranks, he can warn them as well.  I owe him that much.  I only hope that we survive this region long enough for me to find him and warn him.

Udo der Tote


End file.
